Sign-Up Bonus Spend Requirement

Last reviewed September 14, 2026

A minimum spend requirement is the amount you must charge to a new card within a set window to earn its sign-up bonus — e.g. $4,000 in the first three months.

Sign-up bonuses are usually worth far more than ongoing category earn, so it often pays to concentrate spend on a new card to clear an open requirement.

Pikt factors your sign-up bonus progress into routing, so eligible spend can be steered toward a card with an open requirement when that earns you the most overall.

Related terms

Card Velocity: Card velocity is the pace at which you open new credit cards over a rolling window, which issuers use to approve or deny applications (for example, Chase's 5/24 rule).
Reward Routing: Reward routing is naming, at the moment of purchase, the credit card in your wallet that earns the most on that store and category. You still pay with your own card.
Category Multiplier: A category multiplier is the rate at which a card earns rewards in a given spending category — e.g. 4× points on dining or 6% back at U.S. supermarkets.
Wallet Fit: Wallet Fit is Pikt's free tool for deciding whether a new card is worth adding — it weighs the extra rewards and benefits a candidate card would bring against its annual fee, using the cards you already carry.

All glossary terms